Sunday, February 22, 2009

as I frantically work to finish a group project due in.. 12 hours! What I mentioned in my last post about this project was pretty much the only thing I could talk about it. This time's subject is top secret! Hehehe. We turn it in tomorrow, then go into the second stage on Tuesday, so I'll be able to talk about it then.

Otherwise, no fascinating insights or pretty pictures to share this time, i've locked myself in my room this weekend as I wrote my group's paper and tried not to freak out too much when I studied for my accounting midterm on Tuesday. Siiigh. I can't wait for spring break! I'll be going on my first cruise, I'm really excited! =D

Thursday, February 19, 2009

I had the BEST strategy class today! It was so funny. But before I dive into that I need to give some background information on class this semester.

So we had a huge group project for Rolls-Royce last semester, this semester the group project's a bit smaller and has to do with mergers and acquisitions. We have to do research and write up a report on a pending deal, and then participate in actual negotiations next Tuesday. So these past couple of weeks, we've been hitting up cases really hard and practicing negotiating. One of the options that's usually open is putting up your company on an auction block -- this is banned from our project though. However, my awesome organizational behavior teacher conducted an in class stimulation regarding just why companies hate auctions so much.

The first auction was your regular open auction. My professor had a cup full of coins and started the bid at one dollar. We had to bid in increments of 10 cents, and off we went. One of my classmates won it for.. around $5 I believe. The actual value of the cup was around $7, lucky guy.

The second auction was a Dutch, closed auction. It was the first of its kind I'd ever seen. Everyone has to stay silent, and the first person to bid wins the item. The price starts at a pre set, high price, and then decreases at certain intervals of time. This time it was a Ziploc container of coins, and the price started at $20. I personally valued it at $7 because I saw a lot of pennies in it. However, a classmate pulled the trigger at $12. There was around $14 in the box, not bad!

The last auction was a.. hrm. I forgot the name. But the highest bidder and the second highest bidder would both pay, but only the highest bidder would get the item. This time it was a one dollar bill. So, one of my crazy classmates started off the bid at $1! While we were staring at him in shock, another evil classmate bid $1.01. Ooh boy, that guy would have the pay the $1 now. Someone else jumped in with the same intention, and for a while it seemed that it would end at $1.05, but I thought, eh. What the heck. I'll have some fun and go for it. So I bid against one of my friends. And we continued, going up in 1 cent increments for about one dollar, then she started going off at 50 cent increments, and I bit the bullet and bid $3 for a dollar bill. She stopped then because she'd known me since first year and knew me too well. Once I got in, I would win this thing. Hahaha.

Purpose of this class? Show how people can get caught up in the hype and how management makes bad decisions in bidding wars. This is also why people hate auctions for companies.

That was pretty darned fun, but before my poor professor gets condemned for gambling, we weren't really paying for money. I wanted to honor my bid and pay her the two dollars, but alas and alack, my check was refused as she was only joking about playing for real money. Brilliant woman. She deserves tenure.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Pictures of the car show that I attended last week! Here are pictures of some weird, some favorites. Feel free to bash or approve of my car taste accordingly. =P There was also a first floor with an exhibit of eco friendly cars -- solar panels on the hood?? I like how the Mustang hood grew longer and longer, then abruptly shrank -- probably because people became more environmentally conscious? Check back for the next installment! I must head to work now.

Whether you're happily in love or celebrate Single Awareness Day, I hope you had an excellent Valentine's Day! I had a fantastic day -- even with my boyfriend up in DC taking his foreign service exam, with one of my sorority sisters.

I have to tell this story of the somewhat dumb thing we did though, we decided to go watch "He's just not that into you" (on Valentine's no less, the irony doesn't escape me) at the Carmike theater on 29. Semi tangent here, how does such a large place (relatively speaking) like Charlottesville only have three movie theaters? This is definitely something I feel the city should remedy, entertainment selection isn't that great here. But back to our quest to the movie theater. Well, we didn't really know where it is (I should pay attention when I go with friends that *do* know where it is..), and so we were driving around, a bit lost on 29. I called one of my friends -- the wrong thing to do with this particular friend because she's not quite the best with directions, at all. She told us to go back four miles, so back we did. We pulled into a parking lot -- the WRONG theater!! Zomg. We were now 5 minutes late for the movie, aiii. So I called another friend, and he told us that Carmike was were we were before! *cue facepalm*

By the time we got there, it was too late to catch the 4:10 pm showing -- that was fine, we just moved dinner up. The line, was insane. I think Caroline premiered yesterday? The line was all the way up to the street! I have to say though, "He's just not that into you" was one of the best chick flicks I've ever seen. I would actually haul my boyfriend to this one, I think he'd enjoy it. Some other guys in the theater didn't though, halfway through the film in my row, there was a huuuuge almighty snore that made everyone in the theater dissolve into giggles.

If you're ever in C'ville and want to grab a bite of Thai food, go where I went with my sister: Limeleaf. It's an excellent place to eat, good value/food for the price, and you *must* order the sticky rice mango, it's my absolute favorite dessert!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Or more like warmth on your skin! I was giddily happy today all day because we actually had temperatures in the 60s for once! I walked around Grounds with such contentment it was a bit silly. I do like the cold, but it's been so ridiculous last week that it's been hard to enjoy it. I think it's been the coldest winter I've had in C'ville so far! People were breaking out Rainbows and t-shirts like no other in general celebration. =)

Saturday, February 7, 2009

As I don't have classes on Friday, I took my boyfriend up on his offer to accompany up on a trip to DC to attend a car show.

It was the first car show I'd ever attended, so I was pretty excited. There was definitely a lot of cars at the show (well, duh), and this is definitely one of the posts that I'll be updating with pictures, lots and lots of them. I saw a couple cars I'd like, and of course they all started at $50k. =P I did like the third generation Prius, it looks better than the old ones. GM.. mehh.. big trucks still. I found it funny that all the companies needing a bail out were on the second floor, and all the healthy carmakers were on the main, import car level. Hrm... but enough business, back to the cars. Almost every maker had a hybrid, electric car, or even a compressed hydrogen tank. Mustang had an exhibit of their car hoods through the ages -- I'm definitely uploading that picture. Volkswagon's exhibit was very impressive, I've got a hankering for an Audi now..

And alright, I am such a college student. An unexpected perk of the car show was the freebies. I liked the Toyota totes, Saab keychains, and iPod/camera socks that were handed out. There was also a massive "Dancing for Toyotas" stage, and the theme of the night was men's swinging. Too bad I couldn't persuade my boyfriend and his friend to get on stage and dance for a Toyota... haha.

Although I like cities for their convenience, for some reason DC feels so.. unfriendly. Maybe it's because I was there when everyone was getting off work, but it was so quiet and just gave me an unfriendly feeling. *shrug*

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I've plenty of photos of Grounds, and gradually over the weekend I'll start updating old entries with pictures. They're by no means professional, I'm just an amateur who looooooves photos. The deal is, please give me some feedback on what you'd like me to take pictures of. I'd like to start a weekly photo post of a photo of whatever you wanted to see pictures of, so give me some ideas!

[edit] Just went back and updated two old posts with some pictures, have a gander!

Heh, last night was ridiculously fun as I exited my Virginia Women's Chorus practice to see big, fat flakes falling furiously to the ground. First real snow this winter! I was tres, tres excited. I'd say there was a good one inch within two hours. Two of my sorority sisters also yelled commandingly up the stairs that "All house residents are invited to make a snowman with us!"

Being from a place that doesn't see much snow, if any, this was actually the first snowman I'd made! =D My sisters taught me the ropes of compacting a ball and rolling it so it got bigger. My ball broke apart a couple times, oh dear. Somehow, we ended up with three balls that were roughly the same size, so we erected a proudly leaning snowman on our front stoop.

While we were diligently rolling, yet more of my sisters came out with baking pans (of all things) and slide down our yard. I have to say, my sorority house has a pretty sweet yard, sloped all around flattening out to a big area. We were going to have a snowball fight as well, but there wasn't enough snow left at that point.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one to get hyper in first snow. Some of my friends put up pictures and vids on Facebook of them doing similar things, except one crazy friend put up a video of him ramming his new made snowman with his car. Aiiite... too much stress already? Silly guy. =P

Sunday, February 1, 2009

and I'm not sure if the Cardinals will come back after that 100 yard td before halftime. That was ridiculously awesome, and it seems the Cardinals have been going all out all over the place since. Ah, I just finished watching that annoying commercial where they repeated everything they said before. It seems like this year's commercials are.. weird, rather than funny.

Just like any other student body, UVA students are really into sports. All day long I've gotten emails from the various listservs I'm on for Superbowl parties, Superbowl dinners, and Superbowl hangouts. My sorority sisters are also tuned into the Superbowl on all their personal TVs and everyone's just having a very chill Sunday.

People are also recovering from yesterday's boys bid night. The 35 IFC fraternities finally concluded rush yesterday night and it seemed that everyone celebrated by throwing a party. I was on 'family watch' as I got two grand littles (my little's littles) yesterday and made sure they stayed alright throughout the night. In fact, most sororities have bid night buddies, in which the older girls walk the younger girls around and make sure they stay safe.